Cutting mechanism for mowing machines



N, 1941. Q J S Q 2,234,783

CUTTING MECHANISM FOR MOWING MACHINES Filed May 5, 19450 Inventor Patented Mar. 11, 1941 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CUTTING MECHANISM FOR MOWING MACHINES 1 Claim.

This invention relates to cutting mechanism for mowing machines, the general object of the invention being to so form and arrange the parts that the stationary knife or ledger plate is in an up-side-down position and the movable knife engages the underside of the ledger plate or stationary blade which causes the grass or material being cut to press the parts together, thus reducing wear and causing the cutting parts to out better than when in the usual position.

This invention also consists in certain other features of construction and in the combination and arrangement of the several parts to be hereinafter fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawing and specifically pointed out in the appended claim.

In describing the invention in detail, reference will be had to the accompanying drawing wherein like characters denote like or corresponding parts throughout the several views, and in which- Figure 1 is a top plan View of a portion of the improved cutting mechanism.

Figure 2 is a section on the line 22 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a top plan view of the lower section of a guard finger.

In this drawing the numeral l indicates a portion of the finger bar to which the guard fingers 2 are connected in spaced relation by the bolts 3, each finger including the bottom section 4 having the solid point 5 which is provided with the overhanging rear part 6 of substantially V-shape to fit in a V-shaped recess in the top section I of the finger, the bolt 3 passing through both the bottom section and the top section I and other means may be provided for firmly holding the parts in position. This part 6 also tapers rearwardly and the recess in the front end of the section I is tapered to receive this tapered part, as shown in Figure l. The section 2 is provided with the horizontally extending parts 8 which abut similar parts of adjacent fingers when the fingers are fastened to the bar and the upper section is also formed with the extensions 9, the extensions 8 and 9 forming guiding means for the reciprocating bar H) which has the cutters or knives ll attached to its upper face, and the rear portion of the upper face of section 2 is formed with a recess through which the bar I0 passes as shown in Figure 2.

In carrying out my invention I place the ledger plates l2 in an up-side-down position on the lower faces of the upper sections 1 of the fingers and the blades II slide along the underfaces of these ledger or stationary plates. As will be seen the pressure of the material being cut will tend to force the movable blades I I against the stationary blades I2 thus providing a better cutting action and reducing wear which results from the parts being loosely engaged and the invention can be carried out very cheaply as the ledger plates and some of the other parts will be the same as used on mowers as now made excepting the parts are reversed as shown in the drawing. The lower section 2 should be made heavier than usual as it will serve as a runner.

It is thought from the foregoing description that the advantages and novel features of the in.- vention will be readily apparent.

It is to be understood that changes may be made in the construction and in the combination and arrangement of the several parts provided that such changes fall within the scope of the appended claim.

Having described the invention, what is claimed 0 as new is:

In a mowing machine including a finger bar and a knife carrying bar, a guard finger including a lower section having a point forming part at its front end, the upper rear portion of the point forming an overhanging part having its sides tapering rearwardly and said overhanging part being of substantially V-shape in vertical section to provide upper and lower forwardly sloping walls, said lower section adjacent its rear end having a transverse recess therein through which the knife carrying bar passes, said finger guide also including an upper section having a tapered and substantially V-shaped recess therein for receiving the overhanging portion of the pointed part, the upper section having its lower face spaced from the upper face of the major portion of the lower section and said sections having rear portions overlapping the finger bar, a bolt for fastening said rear portions to the finger bar, a ledger plate connected to the lower face of the upper section and knives having their rear ends connected with the upper face of the knife carrying bar with the knives contacting the lower face of the ledger plate.

CHARLES J. SNOW. 

